Grass clippings ,leave on grass ? and using around the garden ?

[peridito]

I have a rather poor patch of grass with shade ,tree roots and an area that bakes .Some moss .

Apart from our soil being heavy clay I suspect old degraded asphalt under some areas .

Cut the grass yesterday in 2 operations ,once on high and then on low .
Collected most clippings in box and then sprinkled cuttings on the poorest areas - goodness knows why I did this ,impulse .

1 Will that be bad for the areas with earth showing through?

2 Should I generally leave cuttings on ?

3 Can I use grass clippings on my flower beds where the soil is quite heavy ?And which I mulch with old leaves ( bagged up for a year but not much rotted down) and bark .

4 I've read that cuttings are nitrogen rich and that this will encourage green growth not flowers ??? So should I avoid on flower beds ?

5 Are clippings good for acid loving plants ? I have some pieris in containers and also a bed with a hydrangea ?

I don't have a compost heap - I'm afraid of rats/mice ,and I know I wouldn't be turning it over etc .I do bag up old leaves ( many many ) in the autumn .

Clippings can encourage a mat or thatch to form. This impedes drainage and may encourage poorer species to thrive. If they are composted with other materials they can by a useful form of humus in soil. They're good for helping retain moisture for water hungry plants such as pumpkins etc. I wouldn't use them fresh on the borders. One, they heat up and may kill plants, and two are probably full of grass seed, which will love the opportunity to take root in your flowerbeds.

Thank you both ,that helps me understand a bit more .

The poor area of grass may not actually benefit much from the clippings as it sounds like you have quite a lot sprinkled over it. If you cover grass with a thick layer of anything it will turn yellow and die. Poor areas need aeration in the soil and as much thatch scraped of as possible to improve air circulation. As the pp above said, any clippings left on the lawn need to be very fine shavings.

You shouldn’t cut twice on the same day really. If the grass is long, give it a trim then as we go into summer, cut lower.

Where you have earth showing through, you may need to reseed these patches. Depends how hard baked the clay is.

I do struggle with my grass .

I spent a lot of time in April aerating with a fork and top dressing and reseeding with seed from Lawnsmith - a mix of Dwarf perennial rye grass,Rhizomatous tall fescue andTall fescue .

And then watering .

It does look better ,but I swear v little of the seed germinated . I had some old seed for shade which I also used in the shady area and I can clearly see that growing away ,but not the more expensive stuff I specially ordered off the internet .

I've only lightly sprinkled a few handfuls of clippings - but I'll be out tommorrow to remove . The bare patches are over tree roots - they are trees on an undeveloped plot next to us ,not our trees .